News

Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime performance, dubbed the «Benito Bowl» by fans, attracted an average of 128.2 mln viewers on February 8, according to Nielsen. That figure surpasses this year’s Super Bowl average of 124.9 mln viewers, but falls short of Kendrick Lamar’s record 133.5 mln viewers last year, which had overtaken Usher’s 2024 performance.

Social Media and Streaming Surge

The show also shattered social media records for the NFL. The top three most-viewed NFL posts ever came from Bad Bunny’s performance: his «Only Thing More Powerful Than Hate Is Love» clip garnered 181 mln Instagram views...

Kazakhstan intends to provide satellite internet to neighbouring countries using its Starlink infrastructure, Vlast.kz reports, citing Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development, Jaslan Madiev.

“Through the gateway stations that Starlink has built in Kazakhstan, neighbouring countries will be able to access satellite internet,” Madiev said during a government meeting.

Under the plan, Kazakhstan aims to connect Tajikistan to the internet in 2026, with future expansion to Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan.

Kazakhstan joined Starlink in mid-August last year, while Tajikistan gained access in early February. According to SpaceX, this year Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan are...

Pop icon Britney Spears, 44, has sold the rights to her entire music catalogue, the BBC reports. The deal with independent music publisher Primary Wave was completed on December 30 for an estimated $200 mln (£146 mln).

Spears, whose career and personal life were long shaped by a conservatorship, is known for hits including …Baby One More Time, Oops!… I Did It Again, Toxic and Gimme More.

Part of a Growing Trend

The sale follows a series of high-profile catalogue deals in the music industry. Artists including Bruce Springsteen, Justin Bieber, Justin Timberlake and Shakira have sold their...

South Korean company Lotte Tour Development has announced the launch of new tours across Central Asia, covering Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, Yonhap news agency reports.

Trips will run weekly from April through October 2026, with prices starting at 6.99 mln won per person, roughly $5,200. Each tour spans ten days and eight nights, offering a comprehensive regional experience.

Visitors will explore key Uzbek landmarks in Samarkand, including Registan Square, the Gur-Emir Mausoleum and the Bibi-Khanym Mosque. The itinerary also includes natural reserves in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, providing a mix of cultural and scenic experiences.

According to Uzbekistan’s State Committee...

Norwegian biathlete Sturla Holm Laegreid, who won bronze in the Winter Olympics biathlon on February 10, stunned fans by admitting he had cheated on his girlfriend and publicly asking for another chance.

«I realised this is the woman in my life, and I cannot live keeping it a secret from her. The only way to make things right is to be honest and hope she can still love me,» Laegreid told Norwegian newspaper VG.

He made the revelation to state broadcaster NRK shortly after the race, which was won by his compatriot Johan-Olav Botn, with...

Discord has shared details about its new age assurance measures, reassuring users that not everyone will need to complete a face scan or upload an ID to access the platform. The update comes in response to questions from the community about recent changes.

The vast majority of users can continue using Discord exactly as they do today without confirming their age. Age verification is only required to access age-restricted experiences, such as certain servers, channels, or safety settings.

For most adults, Discord can confirm age using information already held by the platform. Age prediction technology helps determine, with...

Online posts have misrepresented Spain’s 2019 rail export loans to Morocco and Uzbekistan as gifts, following a deadly train crash in southern Spain in January 2026 that killed 45 people and injured over 150.

The social media posts suggested the Spanish government «gave €247 mln» to other countries while domestic rail infrastructure collapsed. However, officials confirmed the funds were not donations but repayable loans approved under Spain’s Fund for the Internationalisation of Spanish Companies (FIEM).

The €247 mln funded the purchase of Spanish-made rail parts and rolling stock. A €190 mln loan supported Morocco’s Casablanca tram expansion, while...

Ten people, including the suspected shooter, have died following a mass shooting at a high school in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, on February 10.

The attack, one of Canada’s deadliest mass casualty events in recent memory, saw six people killed inside the school, two more found dead at a nearby residence, and another person dying while being transported to hospital. At least two others sustained life-threatening injuries, and around 25 more were treated for non-critical wounds.

Authorities confirmed the suspected shooter, a woman, died from a self-inflicted gunshot. Police said there are no other suspects and no ongoing threat...

Freedom Holding Corp. is aiming to create a fully fledged digital infrastructure in Kazakhstan that contributes to the country’s development. This was stated by Timur Turlov at the FRHC Board of Directors Summit, which took place on 25–29 January in Limassol, Cyprus.

The scale of a global corporation

The Freedom Holding Corp. (FRHC) ecosystem includes Freedom Broker, Freedom Bank Kazakhstan, Freedom Finance Europe, as well as the group’s insurance, technology and lifestyle companies.

Revenue of Freedom Holding Corp. for the nine months of the 2026 financial year (ended 31 December 2025) approached $1.7 bn. Net...

The President of Kyrgyzstan, Sadyr Japarov, dismissed Kamchybek Tashiev from the post of Chairman of the State Committee for National Security and, at the same time, dismantled the management vertical he had built. Tashiev’s deputies followed him, and the committee’s structure underwent radical changes. And all of this happened in one day.

Not only Tashiev

The decisions were formalised through a series of presidential decrees and came into force on the day of their official publication. The First Deputy Chairman of the State Committee for National Security, Kurvanbek Avazov, the Deputy Chairman and Director of the Cybersecurity...

France claimed its first gold medal of the 2026 Winter Olympics on Sunday, February 8, with a dominant victory in the mixed biathlon relay at the Antholz–Anterselva Biathlon Arena.

The French quartet of Eric Perrot, Quentin Fillon Maillet, Lou Jeanmonnot and Julia Simon delivered a controlled performance throughout the race, never dropping outside the top five. The decisive move came during Jeanmonnot’s leg, when she broke away from Italy’s Dorothea Wierer on the climb before the standing shoot.

Anchoring the relay, Julia Simon sealed the victory with a flawless shooting performance, hitting all 10 targets to secure the...

Kamchybek Tashiev has been relieved of his duties as head of Kyrgyzstan’s State Committee for National Security (GKNB), the presidential administration confirmed.

Jumgalbek Shabdanbekov has been appointed as acting chief. His nomination for the permanent role will be considered by the Kyrgyz parliament.

Tashiev, born on September 27, 1968 in Jalal-Abad region, initially worked in business and entrepreneurship before entering politics in the early 2000s. He was elected to the Kyrgyz parliament and later became a prominent political figure.

In autumn 2020, Tashiev was appointed head of the GKNB, where he oversaw national security and anti-corruption initiatives. Some political...

F1 ACADEMY has confirmed that Chinese driver Shi Wei, also known as ‘Tie Dou’, will return as the first Wild Card entry of the 2026 season.

Shi made history last year as the first Chinese driver to compete in F1 ACADEMY. She will now race on home soil during Round 1 of the 2026 season in Shanghai, where the series runs as a support event for the Chinese Grand Prix from March 13. Shi joins the grid after winning the F4 Chinese Masters, marking the first F4 race victory by a Chinese female driver and a milestone for motorsport...

Ahead of Valentine’s Day, Time Out analysed responses from a survey of 18,500 people living in major cities worldwide, asking how often they had sex. Cities were ranked by the proportion of locals reporting sexual activity at least once a week.

Cities leading the way

Topping the list in a joint first place, with 67% of residents having sex weekly, were Macau on China’s south coast and Krakow, Poland’s second city. Close behind, in second place, were Guadalajara, Sao Paulo and Luxembourg, where 66% of respondents reported weekly intimacy. Porto, Portugal followed in third place with 64%.

Overall...

YouTube creator Jimmy Donaldson, known online as MrBeast, has acquired the teen-focused mobile banking app Step through his conglomerate, Beast Industries.

Donaldson announced the deal, stating that he intends to use the platform to provide young people with a financial education he lacked during his own childhood. The 27-year-old creator, who has more than 450 mln subscribers, said on social media that he wants to give mlns of users the “financial foundation” he never had.

I'm so excited to share that we are acquiring the financial services app, @step

Nobody taught me about investing, building credit...

Ferrari has released new teaser images of the Luce, its first fully electric sports car, placing the emphasis on interior design and driver interaction. While the exterior will not be revealed until May, the Italian carmaker is presenting the cockpit as central to how the Luce delivers performance in the electric era.

The interface follows clear organisational principles, grouping controls and displays by function and positioning the most critical information directly in front of the driver. Precision-engineered mechanical buttons, dials, toggles and switches are paired with multifunctional digital displays to retain tactile feedback.

Steering wheel, Manettino and torque...

Discord will soon require all users worldwide to verify their age with a face scan or ID if they want to access adult content. The platform, which allows users to create and join interest-based communities, has more than 200 mln monthly users.

The new safety measures are designed to protect users by placing everyone in a teen-appropriate environment “by default”. While Discord already enforces age checks in the UK and Australia to comply with local online safety laws, the global rollout begins in early March.

«Nowhere is our safety work more important than when it...

Pop singer Chappell Roan announced that she is no longer represented by the Wasserman Agency, led by Casey Wasserman, the chief of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Her decision comes after Wasserman faced scrutiny over flirtatious emails he exchanged with convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell more than 20 years ago.

The emails, dating from 2003, were included in documents recently released by the U.S. Justice Department relating to the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, Maxwell’s former boyfriend. Wasserman, who was married at the time, has apologised for the communications, saying the interactions occurred before Maxwell or Epstein’s crimes were publicly...

Canadian actress Catherine O’Hara died of a pulmonary embolism, her U.S. death certificate shows.

O’Hara passed away on January 30 at a Los Angeles hospital at the age of 71. The certificate also listed rectal cancer as a long-term contributing factor. She had been undergoing treatment for the cancer since March 2025.

Tributes poured in for the actress, who recently appeared in the Emmy-winning comedy The Studio and in The Last of Us.

Seth Rogen, creator of The Studio, described O’Hara as «hysterical, kind, intuitive, generous» and said he was devastated by her death.

«We’re...

Most highly liquid shares listed on the Republican Stock Exchange Toshkent (UzSE) recorded gains between January 30 and February 6, although the UCI stock index declined by 1.8% over the period.

Uzbekneftegaz shares posted the strongest increase, rising 14.74%. Preferred shares of SQB gained 12.09%, while shares of Uzbektelecom also advanced by 12.09%.

In contrast, Ipoteka Bank shares recorded the steepest weekly decline, falling 12.28%. Ordinary shares of SQB dropped 5.48%, while Uzbektelecom’s ordinary shares slipped 2.91%. Shares of Kashkadarya Technological Transport ended the week unchanged.

In terms of transaction volume, Chilonzor Buyum Savdo Kompleksi led the market with...

Online gaming platform Roblox has registered as a taxpayer in Uzbekistan, the press service of the Interregional Tax Inspectorate for Large Taxpayers reports.

On February 9, U.S.-based Roblox Corporation, which operates and develops the global Roblox gaming platform, was registered as a value added tax payer in the country.

Since the start of the year, six foreign companies have completed tax registration in Uzbekistan, including Switzerland’s FunPlus International AG and Epic Games Commerce GmbH, as well as Singapore-based Skywork AI Pte. Ltd.

Kursiv also reports that Uzbekistan collected a record UZS 181 bn ($15 mln) in digital services taxes last...

The United States women’s national ice hockey team delivered a commanding 5–0 victory over Switzerland women’s national ice hockey team in a preliminary-round matchup, pulling away with three goals in a dominant third period.

The shutout win sets up a highly anticipated rivalry clash against Canada women’s national ice hockey team on Tuesday, a game expected to shape the tone of the tournament. Canada was also in control of its opener, leading Czechia women’s national ice hockey team 5–0 with under 14 minutes remaining at the time of writing.

From economics and politics to business, technology and culture, Kursiv...

Organizers of the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics said they are investigating reports that a small number of medals awarded during the Games have broken, after several athletes raised concerns following their victories.

Team USA skier Breezy Johnson, who won gold in the women’s downhill, revealed that her medal cracked while she was celebrating. «I was jumping in excitement and it broke,» Johnson said, adding that the damage was minor and likely fixable.

U.S. figure skater Alysa Liu, part of the gold-winning team event, also posted a video on social media showing her medal had detached from its ribbon...

Team USA’s Madison Chock and Evan Bates finished second in the rhythm dance at the opening ice dance competition, posting a score of 89.72 after a high-energy rock medley performance.

France’s Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron lead the standings with 90.18, while Canada’s Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier slipped to third after the Americans took the ice.

The rhythm dance does not award medals, but the top 20 teams advanced to Wednesday’s free dance, where final placements will be decided.

Three teams were eliminated following the opening segment: China’s Xinyu Liu and Shiyue Wang, South Korea’s Ye...